Chapter 8 : Chapter 8
Chapter 8.
The night before departure.
Inside the royal palace’s strategy room, the route of the Magitech Train had been marked across a massive sand table with red lines.
Sylvia’s shadow guard was delivering a report in a completely flat tone.
“Your Highness, three suspicious bandit dens along the route have already been cleared out.They were all just small groups of drifters.”
Beside Sylvia, the gray-haired Minister of Military Affairs added, “Please rest assured, Your Highness.The outer walls of the special train’s carriages have all been fitted with military-grade magic-pattern armor.Your guard is also made up of elites.We have already completed our assessment.There is no armed force in the Northern Territory capable of breaking through our defenses head-on.”
All the intelligence and analysis indicated that this journey would be safe.
And yet Sylvia could not shake the feeling that something was wrong.
But as the decision-maker, she could not overturn all the evidence based on intuition alone.
That would be too foolish.
“Pass down the order,” Sylvia said in a calm, icy voice.
“We depart according to the original plan.”
…
On the day of departure.
The central station of the royal capital was crowded.
The brand-new Magitech Train rested quietly on the rails, its body reflecting a metallic sheen under the sunlight.
Sylvia was just about to board when a sudden commotion broke out at the outer edge of the crowd.
“The blood and sweat money of the Northern Territory cannot be wasted by her!”
A dozen or so hoodlums charged the security line with raised fists, shouting crude slogans.
The nearby passengers were startled and quickly backed away.
But the disturbance did not even last ten seconds.
Sylvia’s guards did not bother drawing their swords.
They stepped forward, subdued the troublemakers in moments, and tied them up on the ground.
The entire process was so quick that most people did not even see what had happened.
The captain of the guard returned to Sylvia’s side and bowed.
“Your Highness, they were just a few fools who had been stirred up by others.”
Sylvia’s aide, Grayson, let out a cold snort.
“So this is all the First Prince is capable of.
Pathetic little tricks in the shadows.”
Inside the carriage, several of the attendants who had already boarded showed relieved expressions, as though the greatest trouble had already been resolved.
Sylvia looked at the people being dragged away, said nothing, and boarded the train directly.
She still felt that things were not so simple.
…
The train slowly began to move.
Inside the luxurious private carriage, Sylvia sat in a cushioned chair by the window, reading through a tax report from the Northern Territory.
Logaris sat directly across from her.
He was not reading.
He was not tinkering with any of his parts either.
He was merely leaning back in his seat with his eyes closed, as if dozing.
That was very unusual.
Sylvia turned a page of the document, and the paper gave a faint rustling sound.
But in truth, most of her attention was on the man sitting across from her.
Logaris' abnormal silence stirred a thread of vigilance in her heart.
At that very moment, the situation changed without warning.
Logaris suddenly opened his eyes.
There was not the slightest trace of drowsiness in those pale blue eyes.
They were filled only with killing intent.
At almost the exact same instant, Sylvia drew the two longswords hanging at her waist.
As a fifth-tier knight, her perception of danger was equally sharp.
A vast and dense malice descended from above like a storm cloud.
Their gazes met in midair for a brief instant.
“They are here,” Logaris said calmly.
“Enemy attack!” Sylvia’s voice rang out almost at the same time, cold and decisive.
Her order came half a second before the screams outside the window.
Captain Akash sprang to his feet, drew the sword at his waist, and shouted sternly, “All units on alert!Enemy contact!”
The guards in Magitech Armor reacted with astonishing speed and instantly formed a defensive formation.
Several Thunder Mark I Magitech Guns were aimed at the windows.
Only then did the terrified cries of the passengers finally erupt inside the carriage.
The sky suddenly darkened, as though it had been covered by an enormous black curtain.
Through the window, they could see hundreds of humanoid black shadows with streams of magical flame blasting from their backs.
They dove out of the clouds like vultures, heading straight for their carriage.
“Arcane Missile: Barrage.”
Logaris locked onto the enemies in the sky with his spiritual power, and a precise spell model appeared in his hand.
In an instant, hundreds of crimson projectiles shot from his fingertips, pierced through the windows, and struck the airborne enemies with perfect accuracy.
Bursts of fire exploded across the sky.
More than half of the attackers were blasted apart in midair and fell as burning pieces of metal.
But dozens of enemies still managed to break through the barrage by sheer luck.
With a sharp hiss, a large hole was melted through the iron roof of the carriage.
Several dozen black-clad figures leaped down through the opening and landed steadily inside the carriage, pointing strange weapons at everyone present.
“Protect Her Highness!” the captain of the guard roared.
The humming of Magitech Armor activating merged into one continuous wave of sound.
Steel figures nearly three meters tall rose to their feet one after another, and their heavy steps made the carriage tremble.
A brutal close-quarters battle erupted instantly.
Sylvia watched calmly, her face almost expressionless.
This was her guard.
They were equipped with the latest armor designed by Logaris, and she had absolute confidence in them.
She still had to remain on guard against enemies hiding in the shadows.
Anyone daring to make a move against two fifth-tier combatants could not possibly be relying on this much strength alone.
The attackers were swift, but their attacks only produced sparks when they struck the Magitech Armor.
The guards’ counterattacks were devastating.
One steel hand easily crushed an attacker’s weapon, while another punch caved in an enemy’s chest on the spot.
One attacker’s arm was shattered by a guard’s warhammer.
At the broken section, there was no blood.
There were only parts and wires flashing with electric sparks.
“Alchemy puppets.” Sylvia recognized them as well.
These battle puppets were so expensive, yet they were being used as disposable suicide fodder.
Who in the world was behind this?
At that moment, the magic cores in the chests of all the fallen alchemy puppets lit up with a blinding red glow at the same time.
Their energy readings began to surge wildly.
“Trying to self-destruct?” Logaris let out a faint snort and finally stood up.
He spread open his left hand and curled his five fingers slightly inward.
The three gemstones on his glove lit up one after another.
“Spatial Restraint.”
Several dozen transparent cube-shaped barriers appeared, each one precisely sealing away a single alchemy puppet that was about to explode.
A string of muffled explosions rang out.
Violent energy burst forth inside the barriers, and white light flashed past.
Cracks spread across the surfaces of the cubic barriers, but they held until the energy was exhausted before finally shattering.
Although the explosions had been contained, the violent tremors and structural damage caused by so many energy sources detonating at once made the Magitech Train emit a harsh metallic screech as it began an emergency stop.
The surviving guards swiftly formed another defensive formation, protecting Sylvia and Logaris in the center.
The attack… seemed to be over.
But Logaris' instincts as a mage were screaming a warning at him.
A deadly threat was coming.
He suddenly raised his head and looked toward the distant horizon.
At the very end of the skyline, a tiny point of light flashed once.
Logaris' pupils abruptly contracted.
He did not even have time to warn Sylvia beside him.
His battle instincts had already taken over everything.
“【Aether Siphon Shield】!”
As he chanted in a low voice, a deep blue vortex of magical power unfolded before him in an instant, with a dark core spinning endlessly at its center.
In the next second, a blinding beam tore through space, crossed more than ten kilometers, and slammed into the shield Logaris had just raised.
There was no deafening explosion.
The powerful beam was absorbed the instant it touched the vortex.
It collapsed inward, twisted toward the center, and was ultimately swallowed completely by the darkness.
The beam vanished.
The deep blue shield also shattered into countless motes of light.
An invisible shockwave spread out in all directions.
Sylvia’s platinum hair was flung backward by the violent wind, and the Magitech Train let out another overwhelmed groan before finally coming to a halt in the wilderness.